NBC to shut down NBCSN

This is all NBC’s fault for their hubris in alienating their two most valuable sports properties after of course Sunday Night Football, their crown jewel as they have retained and as is likely to remain the #1 rated television show in the US for another decade.

They did somersaults to piss off both the NHL and the Premier League last year by not consulting with them before trying to push more content onto streaming or other NBC platforms than NBC or NBCSN.

Now they can hit the door and rightfully so, for this is just plainly bad business and may some executive heads roll in Manhattan too late.

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Behind a paywall, but NBC is out of the NHL after this season.

NBC pulls out of bidding for remaining NHL rights package (sportsbusinessjournal.com)

FOX and TNT appear to be the leading rumours for the NHL's second partner. Fox was mentioned on HNIC over the weekend.

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Will NBC Sports sell its share of the NHL Network?

So, in losing the NHL and well, on their way to losing the Premier League, with its crown jewel Sunday Night Football surrounded by some serious steaming hot crap for filler content, any real chance NBCSN makes a go at the XFL- CFL for summer ball and for the CFL football in the fall on Fridays and Saturdays?

After Labour Day I do not see NBCSN touching Thursday nights, and I don't see them touching Sundays since they are an NFL partner and they don't compete with each other on Sundays but for during one game per week in most markets by Fox and CBS.

The NFL is not having any of that during the Sunday time slots in the fall.

Turner Sports is the new secondary NHL partner.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/ap-sources-turner-sports-gets-rights-second-nhl-package/

"The deal includes up to 72 regular-season games per season, half of the first- and second-round playoff games on TNT and TBS as well as a conference final series. One of the regular-season games will be the NHL Winter Classic, which is played on New Year's Day.

There are also live streaming and digital rights across WarnerMedia properties, including HBO Max and Bleacher Report. Zucker said there is the possibility that live games could be streamed only on HBO Max, but that isn't likely until the 2022-23 season at the earliest."

They are shutting down at the end of the year.

Unless they go on Peacock steaming, I don’t see them bidding on the CFL.

I don’t NBC will want to do anything with the XFL since they lost money on them in the first edition of the XFL with McMahon in 2001.

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This weekend for the Premier League, I notice that NBC has two triple headers between NBCSN and NBC. And this is how it was and should be.

Perhaps in May NBC are making a run at trying to salvage whatever they have for sake of a future PL agreement, for which I do not see that NBC will be the lead media partner when their plan is having most games on USA Network or that Peacock crap.

I wouldn’t be so sure. The original XFL and last year’s version had exactly 2 things in common, the name and Vince McMahon. The new XFL is a fresh start. NBC severed relations with McMahon after the original XFL fiasco and now they just paid big bucks to bring his all but irrelevant wrestling back to their platform. Memories are short in the TV industry and everyone is looking for a deal (steal?)

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NBC tried to under pay it’s price it paid for the NHL package after it probably blew it’s sport budget on Sunday Night Football. NBC got a freebie for three years when they took over rights after ESPN dropped the NHL in '04.

The XFL is a toxic brand associated with failure and bankruptcy. No network is going to invest in it. Why do you think the Rock’s group want to align themselves with a more stable league like the CFL? The Rock is better off changing the name of the league, but keep the names of the IPs and team logos or move his property to indoor football schedule

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This is not necessarily true and there are numerous examples. The NFL has not forgotten the antics of ESPN’s coverage, to include remarks by Rush Limbaugh and the abomination that was “Playmakers” back in 2003 and 2004, to this day. And given ESPN’s record of strangling and ruining brands, the NFL was correct. Now Disney/ABC/ESPN get the scraps after all other media partners get their deal.

The media and league executives are a short list of names, and they know each other well, but step on the wrong feet at a league office and they won’t forget it whether something works out or not.

The NHL was less than amused at the antics at NBC in recent years as well.

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On only this part I don’t agree because if that were the preferred option they would have gone that route with existing players here in the US. One of these examples was cited in a post I did in the free agency thread last evening so as to bump that one. I was surprised that league is scheduled to resume play in May.

The more news of the CFL gaining financial support in legalized gambling and a possible Federal Gov’t aid(MP Jim Carr press release) the less chance of a merger with the XFL.

The Rock and company has to have a contingency plan if the “talks” fall through. Indoor Arena Football has to be on their agenda, if not the Rock wasted his fifteen million dollar investment. The Rock has to go big or downgrade his aspirations just like what the CFL has to go through.

The Rock’s dream of football is still alive if he operates an Indoor Football league. Arenas are cheaper to rent than stadiums, smaller rosters means less payroll, Play in Winter or Spring time to avoid NFL conflicts, a media right deal might be smaller(could be less in what the TSN deal with the CFL), but he at least gets paid for his product unlike McMahon did. The Rock could still operate his indoor league as a centralized ownership.

I think the Rock has bitten off more than he can chew

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Great points Dave - on arena football I for one just don't get it but I guess there are enough small crowds in towns with not much going on such that people go for it.

Yes the Indoor Football League resumes play in May as does some "Spring Football League" that even has a time slot on ESPN2 on these slow weekends on cable TV.

Or the arena leagues even had a presence in bigger cities like Orlando and Tampa. When I lived in the Tampa Bay area, I did not know one person who gave a damn about anything that was not NFL, NCAA FB, NHL, and MLB in that order.

This included the NBA, the local first division soccer team, NCAA basketball, arena ball, et cetera.

Here in Philadelphia despite ownership stakes by Ron Jaworski and Jon Bon Jovi over the years, when the local arena team the Soul won championships and nobody gives a rip assuming they even know (I knew of one but just found out they won two of them).

The Arena Football League endured its second bankruptcy in 2019 even before the pandemic. Maybe that XFL stole some of its players for 2020 after the AAF tried to do that earlier that year.

Whatever is left of of the Arena Football League well there is a Wikipedia page. It can't be all that much other than intellectual property given that there are other indoor leagues already playing again here in May.

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I followed that AFL football league. I thought it was fun. I was surprised how much Ted Leonis spent to keep the league alive. He owned two teams. Leonis tried get other NHL owners to invest in the league, but there were takers.

I always thought that MLSE should’ve used their NHL, MLS and NBA contacts to get those owners to buy into the CFL through expansion, Now we know why they haven’t done so

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I was a big arena fan for 20+ years. Sadly the league never really recovered after shutting down for a year after the 08 recession. When the Philadelphia Soul won the Arena bowl in 2008 there were over 30k people at the parade. Billy Parker of the NY Dragons went on to have a pretty good career with the Alouettes afterward

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I remember these times and had heard it had some comeback when in Florida from 2010-2015 though did not care.

Did you ever go to games at all? Which was your favourite team?

All bets are off now given the other indoor area leagues, but I reckon it’s in the interest of Redbird Capital et al to make some sort of a deal for a hybrid league with the CFL more than going at it to lead the arena leagues.

We’ve written in other threads about the advantages of sharing marketing and resources and some overhead at the very least without tinkering so much with the on-field product beyond some basic common rules to improve each game. For example, I put up a thread for a site poll about that subject, and overwhelmingly elimination of the Fair Catch from the American rules won.

Which direction do you feel is best? The present course or something different?

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Can you provide the link to the news release and or a synopsis of how support for the CFL may be coming?

It was an point that I invoked. There was a statement from Manitoba MP, Jim Carr saying that the CFL could have access to funding from the Can. Gov’t through a tourism fund.

It’s out there on the usual site like 3Downation,

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